Here are SWEENEY TODD production photos

Is Ms. Lovett being played by a male?

---

I don't think so.

I read a review which said that it's a (tuba playing) woman.

You know, I thought Mrs. Lovett looked like a guy in drag too. Poor woman...

looks insane!
OMG I wanna see it!

---

I've never seen the show, but it looks terrifying. But in a good way.

What a BIG difference compared to the original production. It doesn't look like it takes place in the same time era though.

---

From the program:
Karen trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Over 40 productions including Romeo and Juliet, A Streetcar Named Desire, Hedda Gabler, Guys and Dolls, Into the Woods, and Moll Flanders. In London, she has worked with the Cherub Theatre Company, the Theatre of Comedy and the Bubble Theatre.
She has appeared in Return to the Forbidden Planet.
At Watermill she has appeared in Cabaret, The Wizard of Oz, Tom Jones,Irma laDouce, Piaf, Fiddler on the Roof and The Gondoliers (which transferred to the Apollo in London's West End).
For television, Karen played a mad Spanish woman in My Family and the woman of death in Death of a Salesman (STV).

I have to say, it looks really cool.

---

Can anyone who has seen it comment on how the concept of the cast as the orchestra works, exactly? It wasn't much of a stretch in Cabaret with the nightclub setting and all, but I'm not quite sure how it fits for Sweeney.

---

I was in London two weeks ago and got the chance to see this production of Sweeney Todd. It was absolutely mindblowing. I have seen both the concert with Patti LuPone and George Hearn and the original version with Angela Lansbury on PBS and this is nothing like those. The cast was made up of only 12 people and they all played instruments and thus were the orchestra as well as being the cast. Each instrument that they played was very specific; for example, Johanna and Anthony played the cello. It was as if the instruments they played revealed something about their characters. If the actors were all on stage the entire production, sitting in chairs on either side of the stage. Without there being any dancing, the whole show was so well choreographed as every movement was so planned out. Nothing was done on a whim or out of practicality, it was all done on purpose.

I don't want to reveal the interesting twist to the show, which in no way changes the plot, but simply adds to the horror. And for that matter, the show was scary as hell. I sat in the second row of the stalls (orchestra) and the show was so intense and in your face. And the theater was so small that it was claustrophobic, adding to the allure of it all. Everyone who knows anything of the show can guess that at least one person gets killed by the demon barber. Because the show is done in a minimalist way, buckets of blood are used in great effect to tell us that someone has just gotten their throat slit. The costuming and set go along with this minimalist approach and the whole thing has a Frankenstein/Victorian/modern look to it. Without many items on stage, those that are there are perfectly selected, from the toy doll in a cage to the heavily utilized coffin.

The production is a must-see. I already loved Sweeny Todd and Sondheim, but this show became my favorite Sondheim piece (which is very hard to do as the recent Assasins production was so great) and tops my list of the best musicals I've ever seen.

Okay why is Johanna a brunette?

There's only like 4 songs in the show that deal with her having "yellow" hair

---